So to those observers who suggested Thornton should’ve skated away from Scott’s challenge, that’s not how he operates.

“Obviously with Buffalo, they brought [Scott] in probably because of our team,” said Thornton yesterday, per CSNNE.com. “It’s my job to make sure that I’m available for that, so it’s not one of our star players that has to do it. That’s part of my role. And I accept it fully.

“I wish it went differently. I knew it was going to happen, and it was better to get it out of the way early. Would you rather that, or wait until he does something stupid and I have to deal with it? It was out of the way and it was a non-factor after that, I think.”

As for the notion that Boston defenseman Zdeno Chara (6’9, 255 lbs), was a better match physically for Scott (6’8, 258 lbs)?

Minnesota Wild goalie Devan Dubnyk has been the most difficult goalies to score against this season. Leave it to a high-level player like Leon Draisaitl to make it look this, well, “easy.”

Draisaitl scored his 13th goal of 2016-17 by capping this pretty give-and-go play with Benoit Pouliot. You can see the frustration from Dubnyk at the end of the tally, as if he was saying “How was I supposed to stop that?” (though probably with more colorful language).

Draisaitl came into Friday with five goals and three assists in his last five games, so he’s been almost unstoppable lately.